Chamillionaire

Of the new breed of hyped Houston rappers, Chamillionaire is the most talented, a deliriously articulate down-South punchliner who has both a quick-tongue flow that weaves through beats and a surprisingly strong singing voice. In 2003, Cham and then-partner Paul Wall released the indie-bounce classic Get Ya Mind Correct, the strongest Houston rap album since UGK's Ridin' Dirty. Since then, Cham has parted ways with Paul, gone solo, and signed with Universal. Pitchfork caught up with Cham at his label's New York offices a week before the release of his solo debut, The Sound of Revenge.

Pitchfork: One of the publicity people here said you had specifically requested a review in Pitchfork. I was curious; are you familiar with the site?

Chamillionaire: See, when I got with a major, I started doing research. I have this big underground following, and we already know the big urban magazines; most people would try to cater to those. I'm trying to go to places where people wouldn't normally, to try to get some new fans. When I started doing my research, I asked a lot of people in New York, and they started telling me magazines. Pitchfork came up, that one and a couple of other names. And I just told them those are the ones I want to be in. Everyone always concentrates on the same exact ones, putting your fan base there, but I feel like my fans from whatever magazine are already going to know about Chamillionaire. I'm trying to get some new fans.

Pitchfork: Have you seen the site at all?

Chamillionaire: Yeah, I've seen it a lot. This guy Eric showed me.

Pitchfork: What did you think of it?

Chamillionaire: It's cool. It's cool.

Pitchfork: It's interesting; at Pitchfork, we mostly cover independent rock bands, and these bands for the most part built their followings from the ground up. You did it in a similar way.

Chamillionaire: I feel like people nowadays, when it comes to music, whatever genre, they relate to the story more than just the song. America is fascinated with seeing people have nothing and turn it to something. You look at the TV shows like "Home Makeover", where they turn someone's house into something or give someone a makeover, and it's like that with music, too.

Pitchfork: I just heard the album for the first time today, and it seems like a real departure from Get Ya Mind Correct. That's an album that I love, and it has a real cult following. The difference seems to be that on Get Ya Mind Correct, you were just having fun, and you've become a lot more serious.

Chamillionaire: I kind of grew up and started maturing. I think people look at Get Ya Mind Correct, and in the South they think it was kind of like this classic album. Timing was everything, and at that time you could really have no substance. You could talk about nothing. But the South has been doing that for so long that that doesn't fly anymore. Katrina just happened. How can you make an album about how big my rims are a hundred times on an album when Katrina just happened?

I'm dealing with having to sell records-- real-life issues-- and I'm getting older. There are certain fans who want me to rap about the same exact thing, but it's time to grow up. Musically, that's what I want to do; I want to graduate and become one of the greatest. You can't do that just spitting punchlines. I respect those people who say they love that old style, but it would be greedy of them to want me to stay that same person.

Pitchfork: How do you feel about the recent level of interest in Houston rap?

Chamillionaire: I'm blessed to be in this position. I'm in a wonderful position now because the rise of the whole Houston scene, the scene that we've been doing for years that people really didn't embrace a long time ago and now they're embracing it. It's good to be in the middle of that during the uprising. People get tired of the same old sound. They want something new.

A perfect example is St. Louis. When Nelly-started doing the sing-rapping, a lot of people were curious about that sound, and they started flocking to St. Louis. And then when Cash Money came out, they were saying stuff that people didn't understand; like "whoadie," what does that mean? And they were flocking to that sound. Atlanta, they started talking about traps, and hip-hop was like, "What is a trap?" And now Houston, it's the chopped-and-screwed candy-paint sound. So I guess now this is that new movement. But just to differentiate myself from the other people coming out of there, I couldn't do the same exact thing because everybody came before me, and I think people get the point that we're from Texas now. So I couldn't make every song about Texas because it wouldn't be new; it wouldn't be a breath of fresh air.

Pitchfork: Do you feel like the Texas thing has been depicted accurately in the media?

Chamillionaire: Yeah, it has been. There's a lot of accurate depictions, but then there's a lot of exaggeration, too. If you go down to Texas, people are real proud about and they rep Texas. But now that Texas is popular, you see Texas a lot more. I don't think people are going to come down to Texas and see every person riding in a candy car or every person sipping syrup. But, for the most part, people got a lot of the stuff right, talking about the screwed music scene. So it's making progress.

Pitchfork: Do you feel like developing out of the spotlight has changed the way you rap?

Chamillionaire: Definitely. I appreciate the way it happened for me, and I wouldn't change nothing because I appreciate it a lot more now, and I work a lot harder because I had to crawl first. I didn't have nothing handed to me. It's a hard, long road getting to where I'm at. And I think the fans that have been down with me for a long time, they see that. They've been seeing me clawing my way to try to get to the top. And that's actually why I named my album The Sound of Revenge, because I feel that success is the best revenge in this world. And I feel like if I can pull this off, people look at that story and say, "Wow, man, this dude started out with nothing and he turned it into something. He didn't have no Def Jam or Sony next door; he started out independently selling them out the trunk, just the bottom of the barrel, passing out fliers and doing everything he had to do, and now look at where he's at."

Pitchfork: On Get Ya Mind Correct, you had a line about deleting answering-machine messages from Def Jam reps. Did you really do that?

Chamillionaire: That was just a little jab at the industry. It's not that we didn't want to be signed. But now I think there's a lot more awareness for how many units people in Texas move, but at that time I don't think there was. We were getting brushed off, treated like we were scrubs, and then we'd see someone get signed who did half of what we did but they were just able to talk big and say that they were so big. I just responded to that.

Pitchfork: I think that one of the things that a lot of people liked about Get Ya Mind Correct was how it broke away from the whole guns-and-coke thing without making a big deal of it the way East Coast backpack people do. You could tell how much you loved playing with language, but it didn't bash you over the head with how smart you were being.

Chamillionaire: I ain't gonna lie; I still try to stick to that same formula, just without the lack of purpose. This time I had a purpose; last time I didn't have a purpose. I was just trying to say as many fly and catchy lines as I could but still have fun with it. A lot of people have that story that they used to sell crack or shoot people; that's nothing new. But honestly, if that was me, I probably still wouldn't be doing that because it's so many people that's doing that. It just gets old when you hear a million raps about how many ways I could shoot you. So I just try to be more creative and come with something new because I actually care about the music.

Pitchfork: Lately, rap seems to be even more centered on the whole trap-house thing. Like Young Jeezy just went platinum with an album that's pretty much about nothing but how he used to sell drugs, and it's one of my favorite albums of the year.

Chamillionaire: Yeah, mine too.

Pitchfork: But it's gotten to the point now where Paul Wall's talking about moving bricks, and that's a little bit ridiculous to me.

Chamillionaire: I go out in the streets, and I go to shows, and I see my fans turn from "I like your last rap" to "I feel your movement; you're keeping it all the way real." One thing I've always said is that's never been my story, and I'm not going to go back on my word. It would be crazy for me to come out now talking about selling drugs and doing all this stuff I never did for the sake of A&R or records or trying to keep the street buzz or whatever. I just try to do me, and I feel like it works.

People can see it when you're honest and sincere. If you're a humble person, and you walk in, and you start talking, people are going to be able to tell. You can't fake it. If I asked you something about basketball and you don't really know about basketball and you try to talk it and fake it, I'm going to be able to tell. It's the same way about music; you have to be real. I think that's why a lot of people associate with Jeezy; it's a lot of street people that might hear him say some certain stuff, and it might not even be about the song. They can be like, "You know what? I can tell he's all the way real because I can tell he really did it to know that." It's more about the music. That's what people are flocking to now, stuff that's real. All the carbon copies, the stuff that the industry puts together, it's not selling if you pay attention and look at the charts. The stuff that they put together, these hits that just go out, it doesn't sell. It doesn't have a core fan base of fans that dedicatedly watch their life. It's just a song, another song, another hit song, a one-hit wonder. It doesn't sell. It doesn't last.

Pitchfork: You've got the "No Snitching" song on the new album. That doesn't seem like something you've talked about before.

Chamillionaire: Yeah, you're right. If you pay attention to a lot of stuff, like even the song I did with Natalie called "You Think I'm Crazy". Most people hear me do all these freestyles and never hear me tell a story. I told a story that has a metaphor to it and a whole purpose behind it. I just sit there and try to think of stuff that I could do that's a little different but still not step outside of who I am. The street talk and all that, we do that on the undergrounds, and I still kept the formula without lying about myself. I might tell a story about somebody else, but I don't sit there and do a story about somebody snitching on me selling coke because people know I didn't sell coke. So I just try to keep it real but still try to do it in a creative way.

Pitchfork: Do you think you'll ever work with Paul Wall again?

Chamillionaire: A lot of people ask that, but I couldn't see it happening. We grew into two different people. People are like, "Y'all were so dope when y'all did Get Ya Mind Correct," and that's true. But at that time, it was a perfect marriage; it fit. But now, he's grown into who he wants to be and I've grown into who I want to be, and it just doesn't fit. Who's to say, if we get back together now and you've got one person trying to be lyrical and the other person trying to talk about whatever, it might not be the same sound. Both of us don't even rap that punchlines all about my rims and diamonds anymore. There's more to life than that now. When you grow up and you start having all these problems and your little sister gets pregnant, you're dealing with all these money problems and bills and the company, you ain't going to want to talk about that. Or maybe you will, but me personally, I just can't do that.

Pitchfork: On the remix of "Draped Up" on the Bun B album, you're on the track next to Paul. What did you think of that?

Chamillionaire: It is what it is. If people want to hear it, then I guess eventually they're going to find a way to hear it. But I feel like it was paying respect to Bun B. If he asks you to do something, you don't ask no questions. He's a living legend to us in the South. When I got on that, it would be retarded to be bickering about some little feud, like I can't get on your song because so-and-so's on it. I just did it for Bun. I didn't even hear anybody else's verses when I do mine. But it came out to be a good song.

Pitchfork: What kind of music do you listen to?

Chamillionaire: I don't really have a favorite. When I'm riding in a car, I don't really listen to music. I turn the radio off and just be thinking, brainstorming. I'm one of these people that just like to brainstorm. Every now and then, I might listen to music, but I try not to listen to it too much because you know how it is when you turn on the radio and hear the same song over and over again. You won't appreciate it as much; it won't be as fresh. Now when I turn the radio on, I'll on the road constantly traveling, promoting my album. And when I get home and turn on the radio, I hear songs that are new to me, but to everybody else they're old. I try to keep the music fresh in my head. And I don't always listen to rap; I listen to a little bit of everything: R&B, rock. I'll turn on MTV and see the Gorillaz or something and be like, "Aw, that's dope."

Pitchfork: Now that you're signed and doing stuff like press days, how does it feel? There's a whole kind of grind around promoting an album.

Chamillionaire: It's stepped up a lot more. You've seen the level turn from a big underground movement to a big underground movement plus now you need to let the whole world know who you are. It's a whole nother chip tha gets put on your shoulder, a whole nother pressure. But I wouldn't trade it for nothing; this whole experience out here has been wonderful, to be in this position where you've got the chance to speak to people that would've never ever heard you before.

Every underground artist has that little chip on his shoulder, like "I'm stuck here, and I'm trying to get out of this little hole that I'm in." You've got this core fan base, but it's limited. And now, I'm starting to see it grow. I'll step in an airport just now, and people will recognize me. I'm in Harlem on 144th and whatever, and people are coming up to me like, "What's up, Chamillionaire?" And seeing it grow is, nothing turning into something, that feeling is a really good feeling.

Pitchfork: I saw you performing up here at this industry showcase, and you had to come out and say that your name wasn't pronounced Chuh-millioniare. Does that ever get frustrating, having to reintroduce yourself?

Chamillionaire: Definitely. The industry is crazy. The streets and the industry are two different things. You could be one super-hot artist in the streets, and you could walk into a corporate building, and people would be like, "Who are you?" When me and Paul dropped Get Ya Mind Correct, that's why we named it Get Ya Mind Correct. We had the biggest buzz in the streets, but when we'd go to these radio stations, they'd be looking at us like we're crazy, like we're nobodies. They didn't know what was going on in the streets. When they saw that Soundscan, everyone started paying attention. The industry only pays attention to that.

In the streets, they don't care about that; it's more about your buzz and what you're doing. The visual is everywhere in the streets, but in the industry, it's like you have to show up at this party and you can't take on the world in one day. It's a gradual process, but you can't let it frustrate you; you just have to keep grinding.

Pitchfork: What're you working on after this album?

Chamillionaire: I've got some projects that I want to do to brand my company Chamilitary. But for the most part, everything depends on my album. I could sit here and start talking about clothing lines and all kind of crazy stuff, but you have to take it one day at a time and focus on one thing. If nobody wants to buy your album, who's going to buy your clothes? I keep my ear open to the ways to make money in this industry; there's so much going on when you get into the industry that you would've never known about in the underground, like ringtones and movie soundtracks and stuff like that. I definitely feel like this is a stepping stone to something bigger, too. But The Sound of Revenge is the main thing I'm focusing on, keeping my eyes on the prize.